HOME BREWING FOR HAM RADIO

Presentation for SPARK on January 3, 2012by Rob Neece, KK4R, and Bill Conkling, NR4C

OUTLINE

Introduction Examples Links More Examples Show and Tell

INTRODUCTION

Home brewing includes anything you build from circuits to antennas.

There are many levels of home brewing Design and build from scratch Combine existing designs Club projects Partial kits and mini kits Major kits, small and large

INTRODUCTION

There are many techniques for circuit construction Printed circuit boards Perf board Point-to-point wiring Ugly construction Un-etched circuit boards

30M, 1 W TRANSMITTER WITH VXO

Ugly construction – the parts are soldered directly to the PCB. There is no etching pattern and no holes. Parts hold each other up and only ground connections attach to the board.

DESK MIC WITH RADIO SHACK ELEMENTPerf board construction and point-to-point wiring.

DIGITAL INTERFACE

Home designed printed circuit layout and PC boards ordered from a vendor.

HOME MADE CIRCUIT BOARDS

Left – laser printer mask and resulting circuit board, etched at home.Right – hand-masked circuit board for surface mount regulator board.

VENDORS, SOURCES AND LINKS

Almost All Digital Electronics

Elecraft, kits from major to mini

Fox Delta, small kits Hamtronics

, VHF & UHF Ramsey Small Wonder Labs

QRP Ten Tec

Emtech QRP tuners and rigs

K1EL WinKey kits NorCal QRP Club Ham

Radio Secrets -- web resource

N0HR.com homebrew and kit resource page

NR4C Spud Gun Project

CLUB KITS FROM NORCAL

Right – NorCal 40a 1 W transceiver kit with no point-to-point wiring.Left – QRP amp for 20 and 40 M, input 1 W, output 5 W.

MINI KITS

Left – NorCal QRP dummy load, surface mount parts.Right – Elecraft directional coupler with hand-wound inductors.

SWITCHABLE 1:1 AND 4:1 BALUN

Second generation MPARC club project (original design put together by N1LO). Special cores improved performance.

BALUN TEST RESULTS IN 4:1 POSITION

Note that the response is nearly flat from the KHz range to 54 MHz!

“SPUD” LAUNCHER

Air pressure operated launcher for hanging antennas. Upper left – special spool for line. Note the yellow plastic “spud”.